Three costly McKenzie turnovers—all of which resulted in Houston County touchdowns—proved too deep of a hole to escape as the Lions shut out the visiting Tigers 55-0.

The loss sinks McKenzie to 1-3 overall and 1-1 in region play.

McKenzie head football coach Tony Norris said that his game plan collapsed due to early miscues, and the Houston County snowball effect was impossible to stop.

“Going into the game, we wanted to limit their big plays, run the football and do the little things to try to get the game into the fourth quarter,” Norris said.

“And we just didn’t do that tonight.”

Despite the tough loss, Norris’s message to his players was one of hope for the region road ahead.

“I told my players that at the end of the day, we’re still 1-1 in the region,” Norris said.

“We’ve still got to go to a very well-coached Florala team next week. So we’ve got to get some things corrected on our end, and try to get a little momentum going for us.  We need a great week of practice, and I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that I prepare them to the best of my ability. And we’ll be ready to play Friday night.”

Conversely, the Tigers’ next opponent—the 1-2 Florala Wildcats—are hot off the heels of its first region win of the season after a 67-28 shellacking of the Red Level Tigers.

Norris said that despite how many struggles Florala has had during the 2017 season, they are not a team to be underestimated.

“It’s just like any region game—it’s a playoff game,” Norris said.

“We can’t afford to go 1-2 in the region.  That’s going to put us behind the eight-ball.  So we need to make sure we have a well-coached, improved-from-last-year Florala football team.”

The Tigers will travel to Florala Friday for its third region game of the season against the Wildcats.  Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.